Straight Outta Compton is one of the most important films this year

There's an energy and urgency to this NWA biopic that's nearly impossible to resist. A surprisingly moving story of young, male friendship as much as it is a musical history - maybe more - it's filled with nostalgia for one glorious moment where five guys chewed up and spat out stories of a life hemmed in by crime, police harassment and perpetual distrust. That their success saw them suffer more hostility and widespread condemnation only confirmed the importance of the message, an importance not diluted by the copious swearing.

Our unlikely heroes are Dr Dre (Corey Hawkins), a young DJ struggling to establish himself while his protective mother urges him to get a real job; Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr., playing his own father), a high-school rapper and lyricist already setting up his own band, and Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) a petty drug dealer who initially funds their recordings and who is the first to achieve stardom. Cue local success, record label interest, national tours and personal dramas as the group fractures over money and power.

There's meaty drama here, and much more humour than you might expect. The group experience a constant tension between their dedication to their music and the expectations of their environment. The lacerating war of words that erupts following the band's split is both hilarious and deadly serious, as the men struggle to reconcile gangster traditions with impulses that are, on this evidence, fundamentally good natured. In such scenes the young cast do well, oozing such charisma that you'll never question NWA's rapid rise or lasting influence. If there's any justice, all of them should go on to great things.

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That's not to say that it's a perfect film. After Walk Hard:The Dewey Cox Story, it's difficult to take any standard music biopic seriously - the too-early success, the hedonism, the downfall, the resurgence - and Gray's direction does nothing to sidestep the clichés. It also zips through a whole lot of history and characters at high speed: younger viewers better familiarise themselves with Suge Knight, Tupac and Snoop Dogg's careers before going in, because you won't get much in the way of context here. What's more, the shilling for Beats before the film and during the credits is less than classy.

It's also important to note the film's complete omission of Dre's history of violence towards women, and of the group's female collaborators (Michel'le most notably). The female characters onscreen exist only to scold, support or have sex with NWA, and while the group's lyrics have largely been shorn of homophobia, the misogyny is all present and correct. Perhaps it would be dishonest to pretend that they were anything but sexist, but it does leave a bad taste in the mouth when there are more bare breasts on show than there are female speaking parts. These stars are now multi-millionaire members of the music establishment, and should perhaps show a little more consideration for the less powerful.

All that said, it's hard to maintain much anger at the film's failures. Straight Outta Compton bends over backwards to show empathy for a group of young men who were too often vilified at first sight, and it's hard to begrudge them a corrective account even if it is, taken in isolation, unbalanced. In a time when we have a growing awareness of the horrific body count of young black men killed by police, it feels instructive and important to see a film about a group who yelled defiance and forced the world to listen.